Waiver of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) shared care entitlement 007-02040040

Between 1 December 2001 and 30 June 2008, a person with at least 10% but less than 30% actual care of a child could waive their FTB entitlement for the child for a nominated period. The child was taken not to be an FTB child of this person for the waiver period. This means that the person with whom the child spent the most time could receive full FTB for that child for the waiver period.

This change ensured that where FTB was not payable to 1 person, for example due to income, the other person sharing the care of the child might receive the percentage of FTB that would otherwise not be paid for the child. A person could waive their FTB entitlement even if they were entitled to or had been paid FTB for the child.

A person could waive their entitlement by completing a declaration on the Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012) after it has been completed by the other carer or they could provide their waiver details in writing.

The person waiving entitlement would have to waive their full FTB entitlement for that child but they did not have to waive entitlement for all their children.

A waiver could involve a child who was an FTB child of 2 or more carers.

The person waiving their FTB entitlement did not need to claim FTB for the waiver period and their actual percentage of care did not need to be confirmed. However, the Service Officer would have to be satisfied that the person waiving their entitlement had at least 10% but less than 30% care of the child over the waiver period.

A waiver could be applied until 30 June 2008. There were time limits for paying arrears to the other person caring for the child.

There was no time limit for using the waived period to reduce the other carer's excess FTB debt for the same period.

The applicant could specify a date on which the waiver was to end, or it ended automatically as of 30 June 2008. A waiver could be cancelled at any time although this cannot be backdated. The waiver only continued to apply while the conditions for the waiver continue to be satisfied or until 1 July 2008. Where caring arrangements for the child changed, the customer needed to notify so that the waiver can be cancelled and the person who waived their entitlement could claim FTB if they wished.

The amount of FTB waived was not counted towards child support liability or a reduction to the amount of child support the paying parent paid to compensate for them waiving their right to FTB for a child, advise that this is not acceptable as maintenance income. That was because this benefit was not received by the payee from the payer and there was no determined value as to how much it was worth. It did not satisfy the definition of maintenance income.